LETTER: The upside of 'big box' stores

I grew up in a small town that had several “mom and pop” stores, but no “big box” competition. In those days, they “rolled up the sidewalks” at 7 p.m., and everything was closed on Sunday.

The stores where we were forced to shop were dirty and smelly with limited selections of overpriced, often out-of-date merchandise. The attitude was “take it or leave it.”

When a “big box” store opened in a nearby town, you would have thought we had been invaded by aliens from outer space. This new “big box” was a tiny IGA, about half the size of a modern IGA.

Similarly, people in small towns screamed when their tiny schools were consolidated into larger, more efficient “county” schools. While it is natural to resist change, sometimes change is for the “greater good.”

One of our local “mom and pop” grocers used to drive around the IGA looking to see who was parked there. Then he would berate his customers for shopping at the IGA. Naturally, this caused them to avoid his store altogether.

The employees of the “mom and pop” stores were typically overworked and underpaid, with no benefits, no retirement plan, and no upward mobility unless they were family members.

The “big box” stores that replaced the old “mom and pop” stores have greater variety, lower prices, fresher products and better customer service. Their employees enjoy higher wages, better benefits, opportunities for advancement, and job security that the “mom and pop”stores couldn’t provide.

Most “big box” stores are surrounded by smaller stores that take advantage of the traffic to offer something unique that the “big box” stores can’t provide.

Without government interference, the free market will find the best ways to serve the people. “Progressives” don’t understand this.